Vigil held for victims of deadly wrong-way 60 Freeway crash

Los Angeles Times staff

Annette Barrera didn't know any of the six people killed in a suspected DUI-related wrong-way crash on 60 Freeway this past weekend, but on Wednesday in Diamond Bar, she attended a vigil for the victims just the same.

A victim of a drunk-driving crash last year in Lynwood, Barrera, still wheelchair-bound, said she'd want someone to do the same for her had she not survived.

“I didn’t die like the six victims that did," Barrera told KTLA-TV, but "if I had died, and I had one of these things, I would like some sort of survivor to come, so I don’t feel alone.”

The vigil, organized by Mothers Against Drunk Driving, was held to honor the victims of the deadly Sunday crash. Witnesses reported seeing a red Chevrolet Camaro -- which officials said was driven by Olivia Carolee Culbreath, 21 -- traveling east on the westbound 60 Freeway at more than 100 mph early Sunday morning when it struck a Ford Explorer, which then collided with a third vehicle.

Culbreath and Joel Cortez, the driver of the third vehicle, survived. Four family members in the Explorer, who all died, have been identified as Gregorio Mejia-Martinez, 47; Leticia Ibarra, 42; Jessica Jasmine Mejia, 20; and Ester Delgado, 80. Culbreath's passengers -- her sister, Maya, 24; and a friend, Kristin Melissa Young, 21 -- were also killed.

CHP Officer Rodrigo Jimenez told The Times on Wednesday that investigators still had not received a statement about the collision from Culbreath, who remained hospitalized and unable to talk.

Culbreath has been arrested on suspicion of DUI causing great bodily injury and manslaughter. At 17, she was convicted of drunk driving in San Bernardino County, Department of Motor Vehicles officials said. State records also show that she was cited for traffic violations at least two other times.

Meanwhile, Culbreath's family was also coping with the crash. A woman who answered the door at the family home in Fontana on Monday choked up and told a Times reporter, "I'm just the grandmother, but I've more or less lost two babies."

"I can't answer anymore. I'm sorry," she said.

On her Facebook page, the grandmother, Carole Phillips, informed friends and family of the “horrible accident” and said Olivia, the suspected wrong-way driver, was a “new mother.”